yin & yang

Yin and Yang is at the very heart of Feng Shui and Chinese philosophy. It is the essence of nature, where everything is in a perpetual state of change, moving from one extreme to the other to create equilibrium or universal balance.

To illustrate yin and yang as universal balance, daylight is yang and yin is darkness. Our planet is half in sunlight and half in darkness, and when the sun rises to its meridian, a yin/yang shadow is cast upon the Earth.

Yin and Yang Natural Cycles

Yang denotes birth and rising to maturity, whilst yin represents a declining phase. It can be clearly seen with the changing of the seasons; the yang phase brings birth during spring and major growth during summer. The yin phase of autumn and winter see a decline, in order for life to start over again.

Tai Ji: also known as the Tai Chi symbol

In this symbol, yang forms the white half and yin is black. When yang reaches its peak, yin is born and vice versa, illustrating how when something reaches its peak, decline sets in. Everything in our universe functions this way because atoms, the basic building blocks of life, behave this way. This ever changing cycle leads to evolution.

The human body, as well as the energy that surrounds us in our homes and offices is also in a state of rise and decline; energy is never constant or fixed and Traditional Chinese Feng Shui takes this perpetual interaction into account. Yin and yang information is also encoded into the ancient symbols known as Trigrams and form the basic Bagua used in elementary Feng Shui.